James Clerk Maxwell’s Accidental Invention of the Color Photograph: Humility in Research and Faith (Scholar’s Compass)

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1. keseaton says

   January 8, 2015 at 11:54 am

   Wonderful thoughts – thanks! I wholeheartedly agree with the prayers for wisdom, efficiency, and good quality sleep!

   Reply

2. J. Nathan Matias says

   January 9, 2015 at 8:31 pm

   Thanks kseaton!

   Maxwell accumulated a few dozen works of verse in his lifetime, demonstrating that he had successfully mastered the art of end rhyme. A Scholar’s Evening Hymn is one of his best, although the Poetry Foundation does not include it in their list of Maxwell’s poems.

   A typical example can be found in his verse, “Lines written under the conviction that it is not wise to read Mathematics in November after one’s fire is out,” which I first learned about from Jeffrey Machowiak. You’ll see what I mean about rhyme:

   Why should wretched Man employ
   Years which Nature meant for joy,
   Striving vainly to destroy
   Freedom of thought and feeling?
   Still the injured powers remain
   Endless stores of hopeless pain,
   When at last the vanquished brain
   Languishes past all healing.

   Maxwell also loved to write scientific problems in verse, such as “A Problem in Dynamics”:

   An inextensible heavy chain
   Lies on a smooth horizontal plane,
   An impulsive force is applied at A,
   Required the initial motion of K.

   Let ds be the infinitesimal link,
   Of which for the present we’ve only to think;
   Let T be the tension, and T + dT
   The same for the end that is nearest to B.
   Let a be put, by a common convention,
   For the angle at M ‘twixt OX and the tension;
   Let Vt and Vn be ds’s velocities,
   Of which Vt along and Vn across it is;
   Then Vn/Vt the tangent will equal,
   Of the angle of starting worked out in the sequel.

   Maxwell is not alone in this wonderful precursor to Dance Your PhD. Scientific American has published a small anthology of poetry by victorian scientists, including Maxwell’s lovely “Valentine by a Telegraph Clerk (male) to a Telegraph Clerk (female).” I especially love this stanza:

   O tell me, when along the line
   From my full heart the message flows,
   What currents are induced in thine?
   One click from thee will end my woes.

   Maxwell’s colleagues at Cavendish also routinely authored scientific poetry. A History of the Cavendish Laboratory remembers Cavendish alumni parties:

   In recent years a notable feature of these gatherings has been the songs especially composed for the occasion by members of the Laboratory; they deal with topical matters, personal or scientific, and are set to some well-known air. One of the most successful of these songs, written by Mr. Robb, is printed below. For the benefit of non-mathematical readers, it should be explained that the chorus represents the way in which ‘Maxwell’s equations,’ the foundation of modern electromagnetic theory, would be pronounced, which the marvelous ingenuity of the author has succeeded in adapting to the needs of the rhythm.

   The Revolution of the Corpustle
   Air: “The interfering parrot.”

   A corpuscle once did oscillate so quickly to and fro,
   He always raised disturbances wherever he did go.
   He struggled hard for freedom against a powerful foe–
   An atom–who would not let him go.
   The aether trembled at his agitations
   In a manner so familiar that I only need to say,
   In accordance with Clerk Maxwell’s six equations
   It tickled people’s optics far away.
   You can feel the way it’s done,
   You may trace them as they run–

   dy by dy less dβ by dz is equal K.dX/dt
   . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . .
   While the curl of (X,Y, Z,) is the minus d/dt of the vector (a,b,c).

   Some professional agitators only holler till they’re hoarse,
   But this plucky little corpuscle pursued anoyher course,
   And finally resorted to electromotive force,
   Resorted to electromotive force.
   The medium quaked in dread anticipation,
   It feared that its equations might be somewhat too abstruse,
   And not admit of finit integration
   In case the little corpuscle got loose.
   For there was a lot of gas
   Through which he had to pass,
   And in case he was too rash,
   There was sure to be a smash,
   Resulting in a flash.

   dy by dy less dβ by dz is equal K.dX/dt
   . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . .
   While the curl of (X,Y, Z,) is the minus d/dt of the vector (a,b,c).

   The corpuscle radiated until he had conceived
   A plan by which his freedom might be easily achieved,
   I’ll not go into details for I might not be believed,
   Indeed I’m sure I should not be believed.
   However, there was one decisive action,
   The atom and the corpuscle each made a single charge,
   But the atom could not hold him in subjection
   Though something like a thousand times as large.
   The corpuscle won the day
   And in freedom went away
   And became a cathode ray.
   But his life was rather gay,
   And he went at such a rate,
   That he ran against a plate;
   When the aether saw his fate
   Its pulse did paliptate.

   and dy by dy less dβ by dz is equal K.dX/dt
   . . . . . . . . . . .
   . . . . . . . . . . .
   While the curl of (X,Y, Z,) is the minus d/dt of the vector (a,b,c).

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3. J. Nathan Matias says

   February 16, 2015 at 10:23 am

   I received a lovely note today from Philip L. Marston, a physics professor at Washington State University, with further resources he’s written on Maxwell’s life and faith.

   P. L. Marston, “Maxwell and creation: acceptance, criticism, and his anonymous publication” American Journal of Physics, 75 731-740 (2007).

   James Clerk Maxwell: Perspectives on his Life and Work
   Editors: Andrew Whitaker, Mark McCartney & Raymond Flood
   Oxford University Press, January 2014
   Chapter 14: “Maxwell, Faith and Physics”
   pp. 258-291 & 339-353

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